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Chief Roi Mata’s Domain: Challenges For A World Heritage Property In Meredith Wilson, Chris Ballard and Douglas Kalotiti

Abstract by the mass burial of more than 50 of his family and court Chief Roi Mata’s Domain (CRMD) is the first World Heritage associates on a small near-shore island, Artok (or ), property for the Republic of Vanuatu, and the first cultural which was then placed under customary prohibition or tapu for property listed for an independent Pacific Island state, along the following four centuries. Roi Mata’s former seat at the with the Kuk Early Agricultural Site in Papua New Guinea. This mainland site of Mangaas (or Mangaasi) was also placed under paper introduces some of the key features of CRMD as a tapu shortly after 1600 AD, and the two locations have become cultural landscape, outlining the ways in which its significance refuges for endemic species of fauna and flora. Together with is manifested and distributed across physical and social space. the location of his death, in the spectacular chamber cave of As a littoral landscape, CRMD is exposed to numerous Fels (or Feles), on , these sites constitute the environmental challenges, including earthquake, tsunami, central nodes in a landscape that commemorates Roi Mata volcanic eruption, cyclone, invasive species and sea-level rise. and embodies his social revolution – a landscape More immediately threatening, however, are the social and encompassed within the boundaries of Roi Mata’s chiefly economic challenges posed by the limited income-earning domain. opportunities for the local communities and custodians of The nomination process began with field surveys and meetings CRMD and the constant pressure from real-estate investors in of landowners and other stakeholders, conducted from 2004 Vanuatu for longterm land leases. The high degree of local-level to 2006 and assisted by a UNESCO Preparatory Assistance autonomy enjoyed by Vanuatu’s communities and the limited Grant for 2005-06. The full nomination file for Chief Roi Mata’s capacity and reach of the state place the local landowning Domain was submitted to the World Heritage Centre in community at CRMD in a position of critical importance in February 2007, with minor clarification of the boundaries added ensuring the longterm sustainability of the property. Some of early in 2008. Until his untimely death in April 2011, Douglas the strategies adopted thus far to address these challenges are Markfonulolowia Kalotiti played a central role in this process, as outlined in the paper’s conclusion. a landowner of the nominated property, as Chair of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre’s Fieldworkers Association, which is charged Introduction with the survey and management of local cultural heritage throughout Vanuatu, and as Chair of the newly formed World In July 2008, the cultural landscape of Chief Roi Mata’s Heritage and Tourism Committee (WHTC) of the Lelepa and Domain, as the Republic of Vanuatu’s first submitted Mangaliliu communities. Meredith Wilson and Chris Ballard nomination of a site, was inscribed on the World Heritage List were invited by the Director of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, (Vanuatu Cultural Centre 2007). Together with the Kuk Early Ralph Regenvanu, to lead the management and research of Agricultural Site in Papua New Guinea, also inscribed in 2008, the nomination process, and have worked on the project since this is the first cultural site from an independent Pacific Island 2004. state to be placed on the World Heritage List. Vanuatu ratified the World Heritage Convention as recently as 2002 and moved swiftly to produce a Tentative List of sites in 2004. The selection The Constitution of Chief Roi Mata’s of Chief Roi Mata’s Domain (CRMD hereafter) as the first of Domain Vanuatu’s sites for nomination reflected several factors: national CRMD is located in the northwest of the island of , in and international recognition of the significance of the site; a central Vanuatu (Figure 1). The property is essentially a littoral relatively long history of research associated with the site; ease landscape, composed of a portion of the mainland Efate coast of access (CRMD is located just half an hour by car from the together with the two near-shore islands of Artok and Lelepa. national capital of Port Vila); and enthusiasm on the part of the A semi-humid climate prevails over most of Efate, with a local community. This paper introduces some of the key warmer, wetter season from November to April and a cooler, features of CRMD, outlining the ways in which its significance drier season from May to October (Quantin 1992). The geology is manifested and distributed across the physical and social of northwest Efate is dominated by recent limestones and landscapes, and then considers some of the environmental raised coral reefs (Ash, Carney and MacFarlane 1978). A and social challenges to long-term management of the distinctive layer of volcanic tuff present on both Lelepa and property. Artok provides the geological context for the development of the large chamber cave of Fels. Rich soils along the narrow Nominating Chief Roi Mata’s Domain coastal plain of mainland Efate, combined with an exceptionally diverse marine environment, have provided the subsistence Chief Roi Mata’s Domain has been designated a continuing basis for a long history of relatively dense settlement. cultural landscape fulfilling UNESCO criteria (iii), (v) and (vi) for inscription on the World Heritage List, and reflecting the Vanuatu lies within the relatively depauperate faunal region of ongoing significance attributed to this particular landscape by Remote Oceania (Green 1991), and the largest surviving living indigenous or ni-Vanuatu communities (UNESCO 2007). terrestrial species native to Vanuatu are bats, birds and reptiles. The last holder of the paramount chiefly title of Roi Mata is The more significant introduced species include pigs, dogs, widely credited with a series of social innovations that laid the rats and additional reptiles. Most of the natural vegetation of foundations for peaceful interaction between different Chief Roi Mata’s Domain and its buffer zone is disturbed. settlements on Efate. His death in about 1600 AD was marked Formerly, the landscape probably consisted of coastal strand 5 historic environment volume 23 number 2 56174_Extreme_heritage_Part 2_Historical Environment 14/09/11 8:38 AM Page 6

Figure 1 Location of Chief Roi Mata’s Domain in Vanuatu (ANU Cartographic Services)

vegetation flanked by littoral forest, grading inland to dry rainforest. However much of the earlier flora has now been replaced entirely by either cultivation or stands of invasive Figure 2 The World Heritage property of Chief Roi Mata’s Domain species. Some indigenous elements exist, particularly around (ANU Cartographic Services) the prohibited tapu sites, the significance of which has ensured their persistence or regrowth (Bickford 2005). to accompany the chief into the afterworld. Artok Island was The World Heritage Area is a triangle formed by the three then declared fenua tapu, or forbidden land, and abandoned principal sites of Roi Mata’s life at Mangaas, his death at Fels for the next four centuries. Other than occasional visits to Artok Cave on Lelepa Island, and his burial on Artok Island (Figure 2). by fishing parties, and ceremonies of respect conducted before The surrounding buffer zone corresponds broadly to the the large headstones that marked Roi Mata’s grave, no further boundaries of the chiefly domain associated with the Roi Mata use was made of the island. title (with some modifications, discussed below). These oral traditions of Roi Mata, recounted widely throughout Chief Roi Mata might be said to exist in three different registers central Vanuatu, and documented by anthropologist Jean or genres: those of the legendary Roi Mata, the archaeological Guiart (1973) in the 1950s, guided Guiart’s archaeologist or historical Roi Mata, and the living Roi Mata. Roi Mata colleague José Garanger in the 1960s to the sites of Mangaas appears to have been one of the more senior titles associated and Artok, and to the archaeological Roi Mata. Garanger’s with the arrival on Efate of new chiefs and a system of ‘court’ remarkable excavation at Artok substantially confirmed the oral positions between about 800-1000 AD. The legendary Roi traditions (Garanger 1972), revealing more than 50 bodies Mata thus probably represents the conflation of several placed around a central figure in a slightly deeper pit, centuries of deeds associated with successive holders of the immediately beneath the headstone identified as that of Roi Roi Mata title. Chiefly titles still held today in Central Vanuatu Mata (Figure 3). The excavation failed to determine the outer extend back in oral traditions for as many fifty generations, boundaries of the mass grave, suggesting that there are further producing genealogies that exceed the better-known skeletons associated with this grave. Polynesian chiefly and royal genealogies in terms of depth, Garanger also excavated the other sites associated with Roi complexity and the richness of their recall (Luders 1996). Mata, at Mangaas and Fels Cave. Roi Mata’s seat at the The last holder of the Roi Mata title is the one most closely mainland site of Mangaas (or Mangaasi) – the type site for the linked with legends of the invention of the matrilineal naflak regional post-Lapita Mangaasi or Incised and Applied Relief clans and the natamwate peace feasts, which introduced pottery ware – demonstrated a long sequence of use of the peace to Efate after a long era of war. Following his death in site, culminating in abandonment after a phase which Garanger Fels Cave, to which he was carried after falling ill at a feast on linked with the last Roi Mata. Surface evidence for this last Lelepa Island, the last Roi Mata was carried throughout his phase is still visible in the form of enclosures of coral walls, domain and finally taken to Artok Island. There, according to magic stones and specific mature trees such as the giant oral traditions still recounted today, and documented as early banyan tree (Ficus sp.) said to have been present at the dance as 1932 (Reid n.d. [1932]), he was buried together with as ground of Mwalasayen at Roi Mata’s time. Knowledge of all of many as 300 of his family and court retainers, some of whom these features, their significance and their associations with went voluntarily to their deaths, while others were put to death other, minor chiefly titles in Roi Mata’s court that are held today 6 historic environment volume 23 number 2 56174_Extreme_heritage_Part 2_Historical Environment 14/09/11 8:38 AM Page 7

by living people, are still retained by the descendant archaeologists internationally, and public presentations of his communities of Lelepa and Mangaliliu. Fels Cave contains an results in Port Vila drew large crowds. Roi Mata featured in exceptional sequence of engraved and painted rock art, radio shows that told the story of his life and death, and in plays covering most of the period of human settlement of Vanuatu by the national theatre group, Wan Smolbag (Dorras and since around 3300 BP (Wilson 2002, Bedford, Spriggs and Walker n.d.: 12). Roi Mata has emerged as a symbol of cultural Regenvanu 2006), including a late phase of linear painted black heritage for Vanuatu as a nation. At Vanuatu’s Independence in art that features large male figures. Not surprisingly, the largest 1980, Roi Mata’s death and burial featured as the sole of these figures is identified in local Lelepa Island tradition as a indigenous contribution to the exhibition on the nation’s history depiction of Roi Mata. held in Port Vila, and many ni-Vanuatu now identify the male More recent archaeological surveys and excavations by a joint figure in Vanuatu’s coat of arms as Roi Mata, in his new guise Vanuatu Cultural Centre-Australian National University team as a national culture hero. Finally, Roi Mata has emerged as an between 1996 and 2003 (Spriggs 2006) have established a international figure through his appearance in the US reality broad chronological horizon that correlates the date of the television show “Survivor” in 2004, which featured tales of his burial of the last Roi Mata on Artok, at about 1600 AD, with that exploits and visits to his grave on Artok Island; the French of the abandonment of his chiefly residence at Mangaas, reality television show “Koh-lanta”, shot during 2006, which shortly after 1600 AD, and with the dates for linear black rock based itself at Roi Mata’s residence of Mangaas; and the art depictions at Fels Cave of the large male figures, between Australian “Celebrity Survivor” television series, also shot in about 1400 and 1700 AD. Following his death, Roi Mata’s 2006 and modelled closely on the US show (Lindstrom 2007). chiefly title was regarded as too powerful to be assumed by The category of ‘continuing landscape’ is entirely appropriate any of his descendants. There are contemporary pretenders to as a frame for appreciating the significance of Roi Mata, the the title in modern Vanuatu, but none with the requisite political nature of his presence in sites and material traces, as well as in or social support to lay effective claim to it. contemporary Vanuatu society. But the diffuse and disparate Roi Mata lives on in contemporary Vanuatu as a central presence of this physical and social landscape presents an character in legends, in legal disputes over land, and even in unusually broad range of environmental and social or economic personal dreams. Garanger’s excavation of Roi Mata’s burial on challenges to the long-term management of the principal Artok Island provoked enormous interest amongst the values of Chief Roi Mata’s Domain. We address the scope of communities of Efate, the local colonial community, and environmental challenges first, before turning to the equally challenging social and economic issues of the long-term viability of CRMD. Environmental Challenges Together with the testimony of archival records and local oral traditions, geological research and archaeological excavation provide a fairly comprehensive overview of the range of potential environmental threats to the integrity of CRMD. Vanuatu straddles a particularly difficult series of environmental hazard zones, being exposed both to high levels of volcanic and seismic activity, as part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, and to frequent tropical cyclonic activity. The global challenge of sea-level rise also takes on a particular significance in this oceanic environment. The most spectacular and most devastating of natural hazards in the Efate region is volcanic eruption. The eruption in 1452 AD of the volcano, located only 70 km to the north of CRMD, ranks amongst the five largest volcanic eruptions in the world during the Holocene period, and as one of only two super- eruptions, along with the 1815 Tambora event in Indonesia, during the last six centuries (Robin et al. 1994). Its effects were registered globally, contributing to the severe northern hemisphere winter of 1453 (Cole-Dai et al. 1997, Briffa et al. 1998). In Central Vanuatu, where there appears to have been some warning of the impending eruption, most residents of the former island of Kuwae had already fled for Efate and neighbouring islands, but the regional impact must have been colossal. The island of Kuwae was blown apart, leaving only fragments of its rim and splitting the modern islands of Epi and . Oral traditions still recounted throughout Central Vanuatu clearly identify the eruption and describe the social dislocation that followed (Clark 1996). Interestingly, the lengthy chiefly genealogies of Tongoa locate the eruption at a depth of about 22- 23 generations, less than half way back through their sequences of 50 or more generations, yielding an acceptable average generational length of about 21 years (Luders 1996). More recently, during the period from 1897 to 1980, there have been at Figure 3 Garanger’s excavation of Roi Mata’s burial, Artok Island, 1967 least 17 further submarine eruptive events documented at Kuwae (J Garanger) (Bani n.d.). 7 historic environment volume 23 number 2 56174_Extreme_heritage_Part 2_Historical Environment 14/09/11 8:38 AM Page 8

At least five other volcanoes active during the Holocene lie Disaster Co-ordinating Committee 1987). Major cyclones have within 100 km of Efate (Bani n.d.). Archaeological excavations also devastated reefs, low-lying coastal areas and vegetation, at the Mangaas site have identified three discrete layers of as well as settlements. The three largest cyclones of the past tephra, corresponding to eruptions of one or more of these half-century to have struck Efate are Tropical Cyclones Amanda volcanoes that were large enough to have deposited substantial (1959), Uma (1987) and Prema (1993). Cyclone Amanda quantities of ash along the northwest Efate coastline (Spriggs reconfigured the entire western coastline of Lelepa Island, 2006). The youngest ash, dated to about 500 BP, is identified removing the beach in front of Lelepa Village and exposing with the 1452 AD Kuwae event, and lies above an earlier ash of raised fossil reefs. Cyclone Uma stripped much of the about 2400/2300 BP, possibly deriving from a volcano on vegetation from the trees at the Mangaas site, and contributed nearby Island. At the base of the cultural deposit at to the destruction of a giant banyan tree associated with Roi Mangaas, dating to the period just before 3100 BP, is an ash Mata when fire took hold in the resulting leaf debris. However, from an eruption that may have occurred at about the same Roi Mata’s grave on Artok is situated on the most sheltered part time as the initial human settlement of Efate. This admittedly tiny of the island, in the centre of a former settlement that was sample of three tephras over three thousand years suggests a abandoned after his burial, and does not appear to have been ‘ballpark’ average of one major eruption in the region every overly exposed to cyclone damage in the past. millennium. The soil profile at Mangaas also contains evidence for one or more substantial tsunami events, presumably El Niño events have the potential to produce extended periods associated with these eruptions, when marked by the presence of dry weather in Central Vanuatu, with a consequent increase of in-washed pumice, or with submarine seismic events. in the threat of fire. The regular use of fire as part of the local repertoire of gardening techniques, especially during dry Earthquakes are an ever-present threat in Vanuatu, with an periods, can lead to major outbreaks. One such fire in late 2005 annual average of about 165 events across the country (Fowler came close to crossing into the area of the Mangaas site, 1984). However, loss of life is seldom severe, with 12 dead in a prompting the establishment of firebreaks by the community. 1914 earthquake the highest recorded level of fatality. The impact on structures and landscapes can be more pronounced Global warming and sea-level rise pose an obvious and and, in the context of CRMD, there is a particular threat posed possibly inevitable threat to CRMD, and especially to the low- by earthquakes to the stability of the chamber at Fels Cave. An lying sites of Roi Mata’s grave on Artok Island and his residence earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale struck at Mangaas. Sea level rise predictions for Vanuatu for the year northwest Efate on 4 January 2002, causing part of the cave 2100 range from between 30 and 100 cm, depending on the mouth and roof to collapse (Garae et al. 2006). Figure 4 and climate change simulations used (Phillips n.d.). The IPCC Fourth Figure 5 show the mouth of the cave before and after this event, Assessment Report of 2007 offers a more conservative range illustrating the scale of the collapse, with a volume of fallen of increase from 18 to 59 cm by 2100 (Department of Climate material estimated at 525 cubic metres. The soft pumiceous tuff Change 2007: 10). The overall mean trend for sea level breccia in which the cave has developed is both susceptible to monitoring sites in the Pacific with more than 25 years of data seismic activity and easily broken down once it falls, producing is an increase of 1.16 mm/year, which in itself is not cause for a fine powder. The 2002 earthquake provided an opportunity to immediate concern, but the scope for significant increases due gauge the impact of such events on the cave’s rock art. to major break-up events in the polar icecaps remains unknown Surprisingly, there was little discernible damage to the art (SPSLCMP 2007). There are few mitigation measures available beyond a light cover of dust, suggesting either that the art had to Vanuatu that might realistically address this problem at a local been positioned on the more stable areas of the cave wall, or level, while retaining the integrity of the location of the sites that art panels on unstable areas have already been destroyed. within their cultural landscape. The cultural heritage of the We know of at least one instance of prehistoric art loss, as the Pacific region is confronted with this particular threat to an archaeologist Garanger (1972: 43) found engraved art on the exceptional degree, although the southwest Pacific region lower face of a large block excavated from the cave floor. makes a negligible contribution to global warming and Pacific A greater threat to the population of Vanuatu is posed by states can exert little or no influence over the major polluters. frequent tropical cyclones, most common during the period Finally, invasive animal and botanical species might pose a from November to April (Howorth and Green 1987, National threat to the integrity of CRMD, and especially to the endemic

Figure 4 Fels Cave, 2001, prior to the February 2002 earthquake (C Ballard) 8 historic environment volume 23 number 2 56174_Extreme_heritage_Part 2_Historical Environment 14/09/11 8:38 AM Page 9

Social and Economic Challenges While it has proven possible, through negotiation and consultation with the local landowning community and with national authorities, to establish a series of monitoring and mitigation measures for environmental threats to CRMD, the social and economic challenges to CRMD are in many respects more complex and more immediately threatening. Of these, the most challenging is the question of land. Communities in Vanuatu generally, and those in rural areas such as northwest Efate in particular, have limited opportunities to raise cash in an economic environment increasingly dominated by cash requirements. After a long colonial period dominated by the interests of French, British and Australian planters and traders, and characterised by gross neglect of local community development and training, National Figure 5 Fels Cave, following the February 2002 earthquake (C Ballard) Independence in 1980 brought with it the nominal restitution of all lands to their customary landowners (Larmour 1984). species found on Artok Island – including a possibly rare By Independence, many properties had been alienated for over genetic variant of the lizard Cryptoblepharus novahebridicus, a century, and determining the identity of true customary and the plant Croton levatii – which have thus far weathered landowners was often problematic. During the colonial era, the the introduction of new competitors to the rest of the region by power of chiefs and the solidarity of communities had been virtue of the customary tapu or prohibition on the resettlement broken by missionaries and colonial regulations. On Efate, or use of the island (Chanel 2005, Jennings 2006). A program Presbyterian missionaries assumed the right to anoint new to manage the growth of the introduced weed cassis chiefs, and transformed the descent of chiefly titles and their (Leucaena leucocephala) on Artok has commenced since associated domains from a matrilineal to a patrilineal system, CRMD was inscribed on the World Heritage List. A number of undermining the roles of traditional matrilines or maternal clans conservation and management strategies, both for mitigating (Facey 1981). By thus breaking the link between chiefly the impact of already introduced species and to prevent further succession, clans and specific domains, the fundamental ties introductions, will need to be implemented to preserve the between chiefs and communities and between communities unique biodiversity of Artok. and their lands were also disrupted. Without these connections The major threats posed to the sites of CRMD include sea-level in place, the knowledge of such matters as oral traditions, rise at Artok, earthquakes at Fels Cave, and cyclones and fire genealogies, conservation practices and daily rituals, risked at Mangaas. The enduring integrity of each of these sites becoming unmoored from the land and lost to the community. suggests that even the most substantial natural hazards of the The principal consequence of this rupture has been the past four centuries have not had a significant impact thus far growing individualization of rights to land. In the post- on their values; but global climate change may result in independence period, this has enabled direct dealing between increases in the frequency and intensity of some of these real estate developers and individuals, without the requirement hazard events. Details of monitoring and mitigation measures – or mediation of community sanction. A remarkable boom in where these are practical or enforceable – and of follow-up land leases for up to 75 years has swept Efate and other survey procedures to determine the scale of damage in the islands of Vanuatu since 2002, fuelled largely by Australian event of a natural hazard are contained in the Plan of ‘sea-changers’ seeking desirable waterfront properties. Management for CRMD (World Heritage and Tourism According to some estimates, as much as 80% of the coastal Committee 2007). As one example, in conjunction with the area of Efate has now been leased (Slatter 2006). While the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, the Department of Geology, Mines communities of Lelepa and Mangaliliu held out longer than and Water Supply is in the process of setting up the nation’s most, since 2004 real estate developers have sought to first sea-level monitoring stations at either end of Artok Island, negotiate leases over portions of Lelepa and Mangaliliu land, allowing for regular and accurate measurement of gross sea- including much of the fertile agricultural area and even some of level change (Garae et al 2006). To a significant extent, the the few natural water sources available to the Lelepa Islanders. requirement for mitigation is reduced through the careful The powerful attraction of the beaches of northwest Efate, location by ni-Vanuatu communities, now as in the past, of their which have featured in American, French and Australian settlements and important sites. Thus the settlement site of versions of the Survivor reality TV show, has generated intense Mangaas is set back from the beach behind a raised beach pressure for these leases. ridge and with the added protection of a screen of mature However, the benefits of these leases flow disproportionately to trees, and Roi Mata’s grave on Artok is carefully situated in the the state and to the developers. At Vanuatu’s first National most protected location on the island. Land Summit, held in Port Vila in September 2006, Lands The plans for the management of CRMD have been generated Department officers stated that proceeds from the sale of through a lengthy process of negotiation and consultation leases flowed in the following proportions to different between individual landowners, the Lelepa and Mangaliliu stakeholders (for South Efate during the period 2002-2006): communities, the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and other 86% to real estate developers and on-sellers, 5% to real estate stakeholders. To a significant extent they reflect the codification agents, 8% to the state in the form of taxes and duties, and and extension of existing and long-standing traditional less than 1% to the customary owners (Tarosa 2006). practices that relate to the management of marine and This situation has significant implications for cultural heritage in terrestrial resources, and to the specific tapu prohibitions on Vanuatu, and for CRMD specifically. Across Efate, ancestral the sites of Mangaas, Fels Cave and Artok Island. domains have effectively been sold, the giant banyan trees 9 historic environment volume 23 number 2 56174_Extreme_heritage_Part 2_Historical Environment 14/09/11 8:38 AM Page 10

felled, and the ancient stone walls, graves and dancing consideration. A further modification, in the form of a straight grounds bulldozed. Within CRMD, the case of Artok, or Hat line from the southernmost point of Lelepa Island to the nearest Island as it was known during the colonial period, is instructive. point on the adjacent mainland, also serves to remove areas on After centuries of abandonment since its tapu prohibition in the the Efate mainland that have already been or are most likely to early 17th century, the island was included in the first parcel of be leased to developers. lands sold to Europeans, in a particularly dubious transaction, The second strategy has involved the search for alternative in 1871. Thereafter the island remained in European hands – sources of income to counter the overwhelming pressure to technically under the ownership of the Australian company lease land; cash-generating opportunities that build upon Burns Philp for most of the time – until it reverted to customary custom practices, such as dance, artefact production and the ownership at Independence. narrating of oral traditions. Lelepa Island was the last part of Unwilling to use the island themselves but under pressure to Efate to convert to Christianity, and the community has lease it, in 1994 the customary owners granted a lease to a maintained a particularly strong current of interest in traditional developer who claimed that she would build a resort on the ways or kastom. However, many of the island’s most distinctive island, providing employment to the community. This lease products, such as the napea slit drums or tamtams, tattoo appears to have been driven entirely by the scope for land designs and clubs, had met with mission disapproval and speculation as no such development has occurred since 1994, production of these cultural items had long been discontinued. and the developer then placed the island for sale on the web Archival research located images and descriptions of many of for an ambitious AU$9.5 million (having secured the lease for these artefacts and practices, and a project of repatriation of annual payments of just AU$2,500). However, development on these materials to the community has assisted in a community- Artok is now blocked by heritage protection for the island, and led and community-driven cultural renaissance. Napea slit the customary landowners have formally requested revocation drums have been carved again for the first time in more than a of the lease by the Lands Department. A decision to revoke the century, and are now being played on the beach at Mangaas, lease for Artok and acquire the island as public land was taken accompanying a revival in traditional dance. by the Republic of Vanuatu’s Council of Ministers in March With a newfound global audience for their landscape and 2008. This is the first lease revocation decision to be adopted culture through the three different reality television series shot by Vanuatu’s government, indicative of the significance of the within CRMD, the Lelepa and Mangaliliu communities have World Heritage property at a national level, and suggestive of formed a committee to oversee their own cultural heritage the scope for influence of World Heritage listing. tourism venture, in addition to managing their World Heritage- nominated property. The World Heritage and Tourism Planning for a Sustainable Future for Committee (WHTC) is composed of equal numbers of Chief Roi Mata’s Domain members from the two communities of Mangaliliu and Lelepa, with the addition of a representative of the Vanuatu Cultural Strategies for the mitigation of these social and economic Centre. challenges build upon local community initiatives, in much the Assisted by international volunteers under the Australian Youth same way that our recommendations for management of the Ambassador and Peace Corps programs, the WHTC has landscape grow out of traditional practices that have produced a Cultural Tourism Strategy for CRMD (Greig 2006), conserved Artok Island and Mangaas over four centuries. The drawing on the framework provided by the Stepping Stones for first strategy is one of pragmatism, reflecting a healthy respect Tourism program developed initially by Nicholas Hall in for the contending pressures on the community. The area conjunction with the Northern Territory Tourist Commission defined as the property, as inscribed on the World Heritage (Hall 2004). The centrepiece of this strategy is a small-scale List, corresponds to the limits of the sites that are already community tourism business managed by the WHTC. The effectively conserved – the island of Artok, the immediate community now offers interpretative tours of CRMD, with confines of Roi Mata’s chiefly residence at Mangaas (and not trained guides, followed by feasts prepared by the village. the fertile plain surrounding it), and the floor area of Fels Cave Benefits from the tourism business are divided amongst and the scree slope extending from its mouth down to the sea, community members participating in the tours, with shares of together with the intervening triangle of seascape. The broader profits distributed to the landowners of the core area sites at buffer zone attempts to encompass as much of Roi Mata’s the end of each year in a traditional tribute or nasaotonga former domain as is practical. While the extent of Roi Mata’s ceremony. domain essentially conforms to the traditional territory of the Lelepa and Mangaliliu communities, including Lelepa and Artok Balancing the Response to Environmental Islands and the adjacent mainland, large portions of this area and Social Challenges on the mainland have long been under lease to ranchers and developers. The mitigation of environmental impacts at World Heritage properties is a constant challenge. The tropical environment of Responding to these realities on the ground, the definition of Vanuatu’s Chief Roi Mata’s Domain presents a wide range of the buffer zone draws on what we have referred to as the potential threats, some of which may exceed the capacity for “visual catchment” of Artok Island – defined initially as all those intervention of a developing nation, generating conditions points within Chief Roi Mata’s Domain that are visible from the under which cultural heritage might not rank as a priority. Yet, highest point on Artok. On reflection, the more significant even more challenging and more immediately threatening to perspective, culturally and historically, is the view towards Artok the property than occasional natural hazards are the social and from the surrounding Efate mainland and Lelepa Island, for it is economic challenges that accompany community ownership this particular perspective that visually accompanies and of the property. Vanuatu’s Constitution enshrines the traditional culturally sustains narratives about Roi Mata recounted in the rights of customary landowners, but fails to clearly define those settlements on Lelepa and Efate. The northeastern side of rights or to regulate the identification of landowners, either as Lelepa, and the leased higher areas of the mainland as well as groups or as individuals. There continue to be strong limits to Tukutuku Point to the southwest are all excised from the capacity or will of the central government to intervene in 10 historic environment volume 23 number 2 56174_Extreme_heritage_Part 2_Historical Environment 14/09/11 8:38 AM Page 11

land matters, or to seek to influence the decision-making of héréditaires dans les Nouvelles-Hébrides centrales d’Efate aux îles individual landowners. Yet World Heritage listing has at least Shepherd. Paris: Institut d’ethnologie, Musée de l’Homme, pp. 47-365. introduced a degree of external consideration and scrutiny to Hall, N. 2004, Stepping Stones for Tourism: tourism development the CRMD area, further enabling Vanuatu to address questions workshop program for Indigenous communities. Darwin: Northern Territory of land sales and land-use planning within the context of a Tourist Commission. specific locale in which national interest is now heavily invested. Howorth, R. & Green, G. 1987, ‘Effects of Cyclones Ursula, Carlotta and Maintaining the Outstanding Universal Value of Chief Roi Mata’s Uma in the Port Vila-Mele Bay Area, Vanuatu. Workshop on Coastal Domain will be a dynamic and open-ended process of management and negotiation involving chiefs, landowners, Processes in the South Pacific Island Nations, Lae, Papua New Guinea’. communities, the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and other CCOP/SOPAC Technical Bulletin No.7. Suva: South Pacific Applied stakeholders. Nor should it be otherwise, for the community, its Geoscience Commission (SOPAC). traditions and its interpretations of its own past, lie at the heart Jennings, A. 2006, ‘Survey of Reptile Fauna, Eretoka Island, Vanuatu.’ of the cultural landscape of Chief Roi Mata’s Domain. Unpublished report. Vanuatu Cultural Centre, Port Vila. References Larmour, P. 1984, ‘Alienated land and independence in Melanesia.’ Pacific Ash, R.P., Carney, J.N., & MacFarlane, A. 1978, Geology of Efate and Studies Vol 8 No.1 pp 1-47. Offshore Islands. Port Vila: Condominium Geological Lindstrom, L. 2007, ‘Survivor Vanuatu: myths of matriarchy revisited.’ The Survey. 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